Inside: The easy way to clean oven racks naturally! Dissolve all the baked on food with this simple method for cleaning the oven using dryer sheets and avoid the harsh chemicals.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t clean my oven as often as I should. It’s one of those cleaning chores I know I should do, but I always find it so challenging to fit in. We were taught that it was messy and hard to do and required big rubber gloves and a lot of chemicals. And then self-cleaning ovens came along and you had to basically open all the windows in the house to let the hot air escape!
So, of course, this is me and I went on a quest to find a better and more natural way to clean my oven racks. I will say the method I found isn’t all-natural in the sense that it uses kitchen and edible products, but it doesn’t use harsh chemicals and certainly doesn’t require giant rubber gloves (unless you want to wear them).
I researched a bunch of ways people are cleaning ovens and found that the hardest part to get clean is actually the RACK part of the oven. That’s where I started to dig in. I found some people clean their racks by dousing them in cleaner and wrapping them in foil. Others burn all the crud off. But then I found this method using dryer sheets to clean the racks and I haven’t looked back.
The best part is after I clean my oven racks in the tub (see the directions below), I can go ahead and clean my tub! It’s like a double whammy!
If you’re looking for some of my other kitchen cleaning hacks, check out this post on how I regularly deep clean our kitchen sink, and this one about the amazing hack I have for cleaning a glass stove top!
If you want to see all my cleaning hack posts, check out my page all about How to Clean.
How to Naturally Clean Dirty Oven Racks
Ditch the harsh chemical cleaners with this low-effort DIY method to naturally clean dirty oven racks.
Materials
- 8-10 Dryer Sheets (unscented or scented)
- 34 cup of dish washing liquid
Tools
- wire brush (optional)
Instructions
- Fill your bathtub with warm water and add the dish soap.
- Place soiled oven racks into the tub and submerge them.
- Put the dryer sheets into the warm water on top of the oven racks and let this soak overnight.
- In the morning, remove the racks and use the dryer sheets to clean off dirt and debris. It should fall right off!
- While the racks are soaking, you can use a baking soda, vinegar solution inside the oven to remove caked on debris.